Sunrise at Gibraltar Point

A motley crew of E. Berks RSPB members, friends and guests, headed off from the Thames valley by car or train for the Lincolnshire side of the Wash Estuary, on a bright sunny warm mid-October Friday (well that’s 2011 for you!). Some were concerned that the unseasonal weather would stall migration movements, but you take your luck with this hobby!

Several carfuls decided independently to break journeys at Frampton Sands and/or Freiston Shore, two newly redeveloped RSPB reserves on the Wash which are part of the RSPB’s strategy to replace areas being lost to sea encroachment in Norfolk, just across the Wash. These proved to be very worthwhile stops – for instance the weekend’s only major “knot cloud” was seen by many from Freiston Shore. Funnily enough, most unplanned reunions seemed to occur in the Castle Inn at Freiston, “birds of a feather” flocking together in the main bar on some kind of homing instinct. If you like huge portions of wholesome English grub, this is the lunch-stop for you next year!

Everyone arrived in good time at the Wash Study Centre, attached to the Gibraltar Point NNR visitor Centre, and enjoyed a very large buffet dinner and an excellent slideshow presentation of a year of bird photos by Gerry Studd. Many soon afterwards retired to the basic bedrooms, as there was no bar or TV and most wanted to be up before dawn for a pre-breakfast “sea watch”. The exceptions were the usual suspects who had brought their own mobile bar, and one benighted soul who went for a moonlight walk to shake supper down and managed to get back without breaking a leg (or finding any owls on this occasion)...

Saturday dawned warm and clear again and early groups scattered around the large reserve areas of woodland, marshes, dunes, mudflats and seashore. There was little or no migration movement and the reported great grey shrike, yellow-browed warblers and crossbills proved pretty elusive but lots of other good finds were made and everyone returned happy to a huge cooked breakfast before venturing out again. The list grew more respectable (published separately) and crossbills were found by some; others got confused and started spotting mammals – weasel, stoat taking rabbit, and a big handsome dog fox were all well seen. A roosting tawny owl was flushed accidentally from the woods and a short-eared owl patrolled the car park.

The evening pattern was repeated, after another giant meal, Gerry was replaced by Jo, who gave a much-appreciated indeed fascinating account of a Land Rover trip around Iceland, followed by a fun quiz run by Mark. No-one seemed to want to win the prize...

Sunday’s dawn outing split into two – an owl-hunting group headed for the woods and found... nothing. The shore group and latecomers found not one but two barn owls which were quartering the area between woods and dunes, even going over the Centre at one point. The List continued to expand; little in the way of “megas” or mass-migration turned up, but many got an obliging red-throated diver close inshore and more got the crossbills.

After breakfast some started the long schlep home, others stayed for lunch then headed off via a repeat visit to Frampton Sands – which proved to be an absolute wader-fest! Everyone had a wonderful time and a good list was compiled. A vote of thanks was given to Carol Winder for all her good work organising such an excellent weekend, and to the Centre staff for feeding us so well. I’ve put my name down for next year already – perhaps you should do the same before it fills up!

Report by Gray Burfoot

Click Here  for full lists of birds seen.